Greene County schools hit by Competitive Balance

The Carroll High School boys soccer program, shown here in a 2013 file photo, was one of the Greene County-area teams affected by the OHSAA’s Competitive Balance realignment for the fall sports seasons, which was announced Thursday, April 6. Carroll’s boys soccer program was moved from Division II to Division I.

GREENE COUNTY — The Ohio High School Athletic Association’s realignments for the Fall sports season were announced on Thursday, April 6, and three area sports teams were affected.

Carroll High School took brunt of changes among Greene County-area schools. The Patriots football team moved up from Division III to Division II for the Fall 2017 season, and the Carroll boys soccer team moved up from D-II to Division I.

Yellow Springs’ girls volleyball team was moved up a division to D-III, as well.

Scott Molfenter, who serves as both Carroll’s Athletic Director and the boys soccer coach, wasn’t entirely sure that the OHSAA’s changes will make the balance in competition any better.

“We accept where we need to play. Do I think this will solve anything? I don’t. Only time will tell,” Molfenter said.

The OHSAA’s Board of Directors approved new competitive balance breakdowns for fall sports (football, girls volleyball, boys soccer and girls soccer) on Thursday. The division assignments were determined by using Ohio Dept. of Education data, and then modified using several “Competitive Balance factors” that OHSAA-member schools approved in a referendum vote back in 2014.

“They’ve tried to push these changes through in the past, but this time they got enough votes to get it approved,” Molfenter said. “I hope they’ll keep their options open toward making more adjustments to this. As it is, I’m not convinced that it will make much of a difference with the bigger schools.”

According to the OHSAA press release that came out Thursday, the sanctioning body left open the possibility of further tweaks to the realignment formula.

“The committee studied the competitive balance factors and we listened to the feedback from our member schools,” OHSAA Commissioner Dr. Dan Ross said in a press release, noting that the first three Competitive Balance Proposals were voted down by the membership in 2011, 2012 and 2013. “As we’ve said all along, our goal is to keep public and non-public schools together in the same postseason divisions, but Competitive Balance will help place those schools in the correct division based on the makeup of their roster. We are very pleased that this is now off the ground and we can see the results. We’ll continue to gather feedback and see what changes, if any, the committee wants to propose to the membership to vote on in the future.”

Among Greene County-area high schools, Carroll and Yellow Springs were the only ones affected by the fall sports realignment changes. Beavercreek, Xenia, Fairborn, Bellbrook, Greeneview, Cedarville and Xenia Legacy Christian Academy each remained the same.

“The numbers are pretty much what we thought for Xenia, nothing really surprising for us,” Xenia Athletic Director Nathan Kopp said in a text message.

Winter sports divisional breakdowns will be approved in June, followed by the spring sports in August.

The Carroll High School boys soccer program, shown here in a 2013 file photo, was one of the Greene County-area teams affected by the OHSAA’s Competitive Balance realignment for the fall sports seasons, which was announced Thursday, April 6. Carroll’s boys soccer program was moved from Division II to Division I.

http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2017/04/web1_CarrollTeam_PS.jpgThe Carroll High School boys soccer program, shown here in a 2013 file photo, was one of the Greene County-area teams affected by the OHSAA’s Competitive Balance realignment for the fall sports seasons, which was announced Thursday, April 6. Carroll’s boys soccer program was moved from Division II to Division I.